Working at IBM NZ

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chiefie

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#1043587 14-May-2014 11:42

I agree with Mauricio and lxsw20, these are the questions that you should have asked during the interview, especially if they have asked "Do you have any questions?". When I had job interview and given the chance to ask, I always checked the dress code, the office culture. And if they're good enough, they will give a quick tour of the office environment.

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ajobbins

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#1043645 14-May-2014 12:13

I am ex IBM NZ (And IBM AU). I left in 2011.

The culture when I left had deteriorated a lot, and many of my other colleges left before and after me. I ended up working for IBM in Melbourne immediately after leaving, but as a contractor. The culture at IBM on this side of the ditch here was better. I only stayed for about 5 months before leaving for a permanent job at another company. There were a few factors to this, the key one being IBM AU's policy of expecting contractors to bill customers for 50 hours of billable work a week, but only being allowed to bill IBM yourself for no more than 40. (Essentially they want you to work an extra 10 hours of work a week for free). Also, their agreements with customers also skimped on billable hours, so you often had to work additional hours for 'free' anyway just to get the job done. You couldn't bill the client for them, and IBM wouldn't pay you for them either.

Post GFC, there was a HUGE internal focus on cost, and I think this was the major catalyst for their dive in employee satisfaction. The financial controls were over the top, to the point where the red tape required to do simple things just made doing any job painful. This meant people cut corners or broke rules, and it caused pain for everyone.

I joined as a grad (on a grad salary), but found it very hard, despite a number of promotions, to get paid for the jobs I was actually doing. Their rules and polices make it very hard to make anything more than small percentage pay jumps even if you have a major role change with lots more responsibility. Tho this is a problem in many organisations (including the one I am in now). Often, if you have progressed faster than their rules allow your pay to rise, you have to leave to realise your true worth.

IBM was an 'OK' company to work for. They do have excellent training programmes and you would do well to take advantage of that as much as possible. They were usually flexible with me about working from home, or other locations. For a period of time I was based in Wellington but my girlfriend lived in Auckland, and my boss had no issue with me working from the Auckland office some of the time.

IBM is a big company - what area are you working in?

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ajobbins

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#1043653 14-May-2014 12:18

KiwiNZ:
Lias:
KiwiNZ: Mthey have a strict clear desk policy and you will get warnings for leaving even business cards on your desk.

Mental note.. never apply for a job at IBM...

She got a warning (they call it a security violation) for leaving her own IBM Business cards on her desk ????

That is a misinterpretation of the policy (and unfortunately it happened a lot). The clear desk policy was around not leaving sensitive information unsecured. The policy was such that those enforcing it were not to try and determine what was and what was not sensitive information, so generally any paperwork you left around unsecured, you could get pinged for. That said, it clearly wasn't intended for stuff like business cards where there is clearly zero risk of those being the type of information the policy existed to protect. Sadly, some of those in charge of enforcing the policy (generally one of the managers in the vicinity would be assigned) chose to interpret the rules a little too strictly.

I was a manager who had a team based offsite at a customer location, so I was in charge of carrying out these checks for my team. I certainly never pings any of them for having business cards on their desk!

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ajobbins

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#1043705 14-May-2014 12:40

spykee: Thanks KiwiNZ. So that dress code is for 5 days a week? No dress down on Fridays?

The simple answer to this question is, it depends.

The 'official' policy (at the time I left) was business casual 5 days a week. Engineers/technical people often wore a company branded polo shirt and tidy pants rather than a business shirt/pants, and I never heard of anyone having an issue with that (and I think the policy said that was OK).

In my case, me and my team were mostly based at a customer site. The customer site had casual Friday, and we had agreement from the client and IBM to participate in that.

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raytaylor

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#1045464 15-May-2014 12:06

ajobbins:

In my case, me and my team were mostly based at a customer site. The customer site had casual Friday, and we had agreement from the client and IBM to participate in that.

I have never thought of casual fridays as being so valuable to people. Personally I couldnt care and would rather not participate if the company provides a uniform.
I only ever thought it was something that happened on TV law offices.

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spykee

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#1050739 21-May-2014 22:48

Thanks for the reply guys. I was so busy with work since last week.
Many things have happened and to make it short, I'll be staying with my work. The manager has changed my role and made some adjustment in renumeration. :D

But I would definitely keep an eye for IBM Welly and buzz my contact if a similar role will appear on ads.

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#1050741 21-May-2014 22:55

spykee: Thanks for the reply guys. I was so busy with work since last week.
Many things have happened and to make it short, I'll be staying with my work. The manager has changed my role and made some adjustment in renumeration. :D

But I would definitely keep an eye for IBM Welly and buzz my contact if a similar role will appear on ads.

So how far through the recruitment process did you get? If they made you an offer and you accepted then backed out, I wouldn't count on another shot.

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spykee

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#1051414 22-May-2014 22:08

ajobbins:
So how far through the recruitment process did you get? If they made you an offer and you accepted then backed out, I wouldn't count on another shot.

Good thing it stuck to verbal agreement. I had receive the formal offer, would have been different.

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#1051664 23-May-2014 13:16

spykee: Good thing it stuck to verbal agreement. I had receive the formal offer, would have been different.

Yeah..... even if you have only accepted a verbal agreement - I would be surprised if they gave you another shot in the future.

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freitasm

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#1051673 23-May-2014 13:32

ajobbins:
spykee: Good thing it stuck to verbal agreement. I had receive the formal offer, would have been different.

Yeah..... even if you have only accepted a verbal agreement - I would be surprised if they gave you another shot in the future.

As Matt Cushman said: "You know I don't do contracts. You have my word, and it's stronger than oak." and a few minutes later we see he signed up with the competitor...

In other words: trust no one.

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lchiu7

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#1051849 23-May-2014 18:03

I spent two years working for IBM Global Services in HK as a Principal in consulting. The culture there was quite backwards compared with the rest of IBM. And workwise, it was tough with the standard leaving time about 8pm! I don't think IBM NZ do that based on my knowledge of folks working there.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

surfisup1000

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#1051866 23-May-2014 19:13

I found ibm nz to be good employers. They let me use a carpark after hours too which was nice .

Worked for IBM UK at the Hursley development lab too.

The hursley site was great, had it's own cricket ground / pub and it is where the spitfire was designed too.

Makes me nostalgic thinking about it. The UK is a great place to work and with so many opportunities compared to NZ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hursley_House

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